YKCI works for copyright protection, remuneration

By Helly Minarti

JAKARTA (JP): Do you want to listen to the latest song by your favorite band but have no money to buy the cassette or CD? No problem. Just tune in a radio station, request the song, and you'll have it for free.

Radio stations spend lots of money on cassettes and CDs, but did you also know they pay the artists? Not only radio stations, but also television stations, hotels, restaurants, pubs, discos, and other profit-making enterprises which use music for commercial purposes.

The history of collecting royalties for musicians in Indonesia dates back to 1990, when the Indonesian Creative Foundation, or Yayasan Karya Cipta Indonesia (YKCI), was established. The foundation uses an international system, which covers performing rights and mechanical rights.

It started by collecting for performing rights -- the right of a composer to receive a royalty from anyone who performs his or her song for commercial purposes by singing it or playing a recording of the song in public.

To monitor and measure the royalty amounts, YKCI applies two methods.

"First is what we call 'census' -- our effort to monitor the songs played on the radio and television. Second is sampling," explained Chandra Darusman, a noted jazz musician and YKCI's general manager.

With sampling, YKCI compares their own findings to a report from users. "If their reports are close to ours, we'll use it as our data.

"It's impossible to be accurate -- it would cost a fortune -- but we try to reach an estimate by, for instance, giving the composers a kind of compensation for certain conditions."

YKCI focuses on Jakarta, Denpasar, Manado, Ujungpandang, Palembang, Bandung and Jayapura. "The smaller cities have to wait since their understanding of copyrights is still low. We cannot force them if they still don't fully comprehend the idea," he said.

YKCI based its royalty rate on an international standard that has been modified to local conditions. It covers songs by foreign and local artists used by Indonesian companies.

In 1992, only 20 percent of Indonesian music users paid royalties. The figure rose to 50 percent in 1993, and almost 70 percent last year. The foundation collected Rp 400 million in 1991. In 1995, the foundation distributed Rp 1.6 billion in royalties for 1994 to nearly 1 million local and international music composers.

YKCI has 29 employees and has collected almost Rp 2.8 billion in royalties for 1996, which will be distributed on Wednesday.

"Rp 2.6 billion came from performing rights, and the rest from mechanical rights," Chandra said.

A mechanical right is the right of a composer to receive royalties from the reproduction of his or her songs in the form of cassettes, compact discs, laser discs, mini discs, CD-ROMS, etc.

Chandra said it is hardest to collect mechanical rights due to hindrances stemming mostly from the industry itself.

"It'll take another three or four years to restructure the Indonesian music industry in order to fully prepare them.

"Since we deal with the existing structure, which has been there for years, it's kind of hard to apply this international system," said Chandra, who graduated with an economics degree from the University of Indonesia.

'Flat system'

Artists usually get paid under a "flat system" -- a lump sum payment.

"In this system, they probably get a big, one-time advance, yet they lose the opportunity to gain higher earnings from royalties if an album is a hit.

"We also try to recognize the problem from the producer's side, for instance, by setting up a fair method to measure the mechanical right through accurate cassette returns. Sometimes the producers take back unsold cassettes after releasing them, even if they have already paid the composers an amount in advance."

YKCI sits down with ASIRI (Indonesian Producers Association) on regular basis to discuss problems in the industry. "We also have a close relationship with PAPPRI (Organization of Indonesian Recording Artists, Arrangers and Composers) to increase the artist's understanding of the system."

Ideally, PAPPRI acts as the organization which educates and improves the artist's professionalism, while YKCI plays the role of guardian monitoring the artist's copyright rights.

Indonesia passed its Copyright Act in 1982 and updated it in 1987. Under the law, violators are subject to a maximum of seven years in prison and a fine of Rp 100 million (US$41,600).

"The law is usually a step behind the industry, so it always needs adjustment, like we did in 1987."

One of the international instruments that provides a protection of intellectual property rights is the Bern Convention. Indonesia signed it in 1958 but then resigned from the convention. Chandra said the government should re-sign the convention, which requires its members to pay mechanical rights to artists.

Chandra vowed that YKCI would continue to struggle for artists' rights. In the future, it will not only cover copyrights in the music industry, but also books, paintings and dances. "We'd like to protect the copyrights of artists in every field," he said.